25/28mm Chicago Mayhem Game

The Chicago Mayhem game I'd been planning with Jason for weeks finally came off, and it worked better than I thought it would. Everybody had a really good time, and Steve Robinson, our host, was really getting into the spirit of things playing the downtrodden strikers. He really made them come to life against Jason's National Guard.

Rules used were Iron Ivan's Where Heroes Dare, modified a bit for the game and they worked, though the close combat rules were still a bit clunky. I also may have overestimated the size of Steve's figure collection, as French Poilu were standing in for some of the cops. Oh well, I guess I get him some as a gift when we go to Historicon next?

The game was one where everyone played differing factions with various tasks to perform, the Italians, for example, had to steal some loaded beer trucks from the Irish mob. Meanwhile, the cops had to seize the very same beer trucks as "evidence". The Feds, independently (the cops are on the take from the Irish Mob) have to take the trucks under the Volstead act. Meanwhile, the Mob's stirred up the workers of the brewery (disguised as a bakery) into striking to cover the departure of the beer, so the National Guard's been called in to break up the strike. They're looking to goad the National Guard into doing something stupid (like firing into the crowd) so as to get it documented by the media and gain sympathy for unionizing.

Now, to the game.

The Italians used the cover of the National Guard and Strikers beating the nine bells out of each other (with the strikers giving as good as they got), to try to sneak into the brewery and grab a few trucks. The Feds on the other hand made a beeline right for the brewery, and got shot to pieces for their trouble. I got shot at by the Irish mob a little bit, and the Cops a lot, but I did kill two cops for my trouble, but there were simply too many cops and Irish between me and the beer.

As for the Strikers and the National Guard? The Strikers finally goaded the National Guard into firing, and they did, killing three strikers and finally breaking the strike, but the reporter got some good pictures for the morning edition. I can see the headline now:

NATIONAL GUARD GUNS DOWN STRIKERS; BLOOD FLOWS IN STREETS!

Fun was had by all and the game got to be raucous fun, with Steve, our host who played the Strikers having the most fun blaming everything on "management". Honorable mention goes to Dave Luff who was the police and he was referring to the strikers as "Reds, Scum, Wisconsin Teachers!"

And now, the pictures!

Been a bad blogger Pt 2

Well all, it's been really busy in RL (My wife was hospitalized, it's the nature of the beast with bipolar disorder) on my end, but there was a lot of gaming news.

1. Ran a Tomorrow's War game at Steve's place, and while I may have screwed up the reaction rules, in fact, I am sure I did...everybody had fun, and about a billion suggestions for house rules. I do agree with one thing, bigger units seem to have more defensive dice, which is weird, because larger units should be easier to hit? Something to ponder. No pics, but the terrain and troops, 25mm this time, were gorgeous.

2. Fall In was a good time, and though I am writing about it three weeks after the fact. The vibe was kinda a downer, as a lot of vendors had a bad taste in their mouths about the lastest doings from HMGS. Spoke to Walt O'Hara, and while I will not relate what was said, any support I had for the Baltimore endeavor is over. I had no idea how badly it was planned and executed. I just hope the lawsuits that are going forward can be settled to the satisfaction of all parties.

As for actual gaming? I got into a colonials game set in German SWA, and played the natives...The game was hard fought, with the natives controlling the high-ground and it became a smash mouth type of fight, just the kind of game I like. I lost on points, but who the hell cared?

The second game? It was a sci-fi 15s game? Well, it was confusing. I played the UN, and misread my victory conditions, getting into a fight I could not win. Oh well, I left early and hit the flea market, where I got some nice deals.

My third game was a Mexican-American game of Regimental Fire and Fury, while there was some argument over the scenario and play balance (some Mexican siege artillery that didn't fire on the Americans historically took out the US artillery), I had fun, though I don't get how Regimental F and F is much different from Regular F and F?

As for the haul I made?

1 Rapid Fire based company of 20mm WWII US airborne
50-60 20mm Partisans and Volksturm
1 FoV SU-122 in winter scheme
1 kit of the Armourama Fireflies
3 Ospreys I didn't have
The Against The Odds issue with the Russo-Finnish Air game in it.
Some Winter Americans and Early Pacific US and Japanese from SGMM
And, for Gage, a box of the PSC Soviets.

Not too shabby.

3. The deadline (self-imposed really) is coming up for SF 15's second issue, so if you've got something, please send it in. I really only have two submissions, and one's mine! So, if you want to submit something, and it's vaguely useful to the 15mm Sci-Fi gamer, by all means send it in! We've got a new layout guy who has done wonders with the new covers and layout, I just want to give him something to work with!

So, there is is for now folks, more later!